Obedience I want, says the Lord

As you remember, I was talking about the Lord's call to a life of facts and not just emotions regarding the work of holiness, the life of holiness. The Apostle Paul says that the Gospel does not consist of words. Words are beautiful, feelings are beautiful, but the Bible speaks of obedience, "I want obedience, says the Lord." That is what truly moves the heart of God, when we obey his word.

That is why James says in 22, 'but be doers of the word and not just hearers.' If anyone is a hearer, he says, but not a doer, he deceives himself. I made some notes here many years ago, more than I care to remember. These yellow papers are more yellowish, I think because they are old than because of their original color. But I wrote here many years ago, there are people who come on Sundays and sit in the sanctuary to listen to the sermon. They like what the preacher says and for a moment they get excited and excited but then they forget what they heard.

He speaks here of being similar to a man who considers his natural face in a mirror but considers himself and then forgets what he was like. This person, as soon as they pass through the threshold of the church and leave the door of the church, is attacked by a kind of total amnesia. If you ask them what the preacher talked about, they don't know how to answer. They like to gargle with the word of God but they don't swallow it.

It seems that I was in a bad mood when I wrote this passage. I don't know. Maybe he hadn't eaten well. I don't know what happened there. I think you understand what I mean. Like when they gave us a pill when we were children and we kept it under our tongue to fool our mother and since she left, we spit it out. So thank God that you caught me tired and old.

Santiago says that we have to be doers because if someone is a hearer of the word but not a doer, he deceives himself. We are fooling ourselves. God cannot be mocked, says the Bible. Whatever a man sows, that will also reap. And we have to always keep that in mind, brothers, that certainly in our actions, our words, the things that we do, others may not see them, but certainly at some point you catch up with us and if we believe that we can do things that are not right before the Lord and that we will simply come out totally unscathed from those escapades, we are deceiving ourselves. Who we fool is ourselves. And if we make double-mindedness and inconsistency in our lives a rule, we are actually fooling ourselves.

Again, he says that he is like a mirror, the person who looks at himself in a mirror. The word of God is a mirror, it shows us as we are. Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12, comes to my mind, which says that the word of God is alive and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrates to split the soul and spirit, joints and marrow and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and there is no created thing that is not manifested in his presence. Rather, all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to give an account.

So, the word of God is something very powerful, not only in the sense that God implants it in us and transforms us, as we said before, that implanted word. The word of God also gives us life, it says that it is capable of saving our souls, in verse 21, 'which can save our souls', but also that word has the virtue that when we scrutinize it, reading it continually shows us ourselves as we are. It's like he does an analysis, he does an X-ray of us.

When we read the word, the word portrays us and we can see ourselves in it. And really, I would say, that the word of God is the only reliable way for us to see ourselves and to realize the human condition. There is no other system and no other document. It is a mirror, which is why Santiago compares it to a mirror that never lies. That mirror of the word is very powerful.

It is not like the mirror of the witch and Sleeping Beauty, you remember that the woman asks "And who is the most beautiful?" And the mirror always tells her, "Sure, you are." But the word of God shows us in our true nature.

Only this mirror shows us the human soul as it is, not like psychology or sociology and other disciplines of that type, which show a wrong and distorted image of man. They have their virtue up to a point, but today, for example, psychology is being used to justify a number of things that are damaging to the fabric of human society and can be misrepresented in a very powerful way.

But the word of God is that standard that when we use it and see it as it is, and consider it as it is, gives us an exact and precise image of what the human soul is like. God knows us very well through his word.

So, James establishes a relationship here, he says that the person who does not do the word of God but simply listens to it, is similar to a man who considers his natural face in a mirror, because he considers himself and leaves and then you forget what it was like.

It is interesting, think that Santiago is talking about mirrors 2000 years ago. And you know that the mirrors of then were not like the mirrors of today, that you can see yourself almost exactly as you are, although you only see it in two dimensions, but rather the mirrors of before. For those blessed or lucky enough to see themselves in a mirror, it was more like metal. Think that the glass was not covered with that substance, I don't know what it is, I don't remember the name, that makes the person reflect. No, what people used was metal, burnished brass or something like that to look like, and so they looked in a very imperfect way. Very few people even had metal polished enough to be able to see their face and they looked you could see it maybe in a river, or something like that, but that was it. And they looked very limited, very imperfectly.

And that is why I think that many people perhaps did not know exactly what they looked like and many would say, that's good. But many people did not have the ability to see themselves or to remember what they were like. That is important. He says, a person who can look at himself, see his face and not remember what he was like.

I think that for many people it was like that, that they simply saw something quickly and then forgot. We have a very clear image of ourselves, we see each other 20 times a day, and some little sisters even more than that. That is why what he says here is so important, that many people are like that, they listen to the sermon, for a moment the word portrays them, but then they do like this and poof, they have an image... because they are not used to looking closely at themselves. That kind of situation is dangerous for the Christian.

Considering is as opposed to looking attentively. Considering is a quick glance, a quick glance like when you are leaving the house quickly and only have time to look at yourself in the mirror for a moment and run away. He considers himself quickly.

He says, but the one who looks carefully, there is a contrast between considering something quick, light, superficial, and looking carefully, looking carefully, scrupulously, with great attention, concentrating all his energy on the effort of looking, as we look at something that we don't we can't even lift our eyes, but we have to lower our neck and head and inspect it as if frowning.

How many know that expression frowning? That expression is very fine. I find myself doing that more and more as the years go by. As we would go down to look at a small flower hidden in a corner of the road, a curious insect or something small, look at it carefully. This is how we must be in the study of the word of the Lord, in the principles of the word of God, scrutinize it with great attention.

Most Christians, frankly, are very superficial in our knowledge of God's word. Every day there are fewer people who know Scripture and the principles of Scripture, fewer people spend time searching the word. As I said a long time ago, to be people of the word, who know the main themes, know the main characters, know the stories of the Bible.

You ask them anything and right away you get a reminder of that, they have verses continually on their mind. That person, the person who comes to the house of the Lord with great seriousness, because he knows that he is engaged at that moment in an intimate and personal relationship with the voice of God that is speaking through the word that is being exposed, or the word you are currently reading.

This is how we must be, we must be attentive observers of the word and principles of the Lord. When you come to church, come attentively, come with your spirit upright, come with the expectation that God is going to speak to you, come with determination, I am not going to start thinking about little birds in the air and going around all over the place. parts, through the universe with my mind. No, every time my mind wanders I am going to bring it back to focus on what I am listening to, I am going to listen to it with faith. I am going to listen as if God is speaking to me. These people receive from God and God speaks to them and they are touched.

So, you have to look carefully, he says, the one who looks carefully at the perfect law. What is that law? The law of the word of the Lord. I think of that verse that says, 'Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path.' The law of the Lord. Think that James is now putting the word of God as in terms of law, commandments, precepts, God's advice, divine norms. And it is a perfect law that has no lock, has no flaw in it.

Not like the Mosaic Law, I believe that James is also establishing a small contrast between the Mosaic Law, which was an imperfect law, but the perfect law of God's revelation. He says and then clarifies, "he who looks carefully at the perfect law, that of freedom."

Do you see here an irony and a paradox? Because generally law is not associated with freedom. Law is something that restricts us, law is something that limits us, however, Santiago comes up with, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, because the word of the Lord sets us free , the word of the Lord places certain limits on us, it is true, it limits us in the exercise of our appetites and the things that are destructive to us, but paradoxically it also frees them, it makes us free to enjoy life, it makes us free to live peacefully , to run lightly the race of the Christian life.

There is nothing like sticking to the word of the Lord. Brothers, let me tell you, the more time passes, the more I discover that in one staying within the boundaries of the word of the Lord, there is a sense of security and tranquility that one does not change for anything. So many mistakes and so many things that one falls into in life, so many blows that one gives, are often because we have strayed from the safety of the word of the Lord.

So if we are obedient to the word, the word protects us and then frees us to live happy lives, productive lives, peaceful lives, to sleep peacefully, wake up peacefully, if we go through tribulations and trials, we don't have to wonder about that sin , No. Okay, amen, I'm going through a test but the Lord will take me out, because one examines oneself and as Job one says, well, I'm looking for myself where I could have… but no, I'm calm, I've done everything I could. We always sin against the Lord, but there is a security that we have then, and we know that the Lord is going to help us and he is going to take us forward. We feel authoritative to come before his presence. Our conscience does not accuse us, we know that the devil cannot take advantage of our life.

One day I want to preach about an image, a passage that came to my mind recently and that I have wanted to touch on at some point, where it says that we do not give place to the devil. Place is a word like a handle on a cup, don't give Satan a runway in your life. Don't give him a place to catch you. And when one is in the will of the Lord, doing the will of God, the enemy has nowhere to manipulate us, where to accuse us, where to catch us because he is defeated in our lives.

If there is any trial, any pain in our life, we know that it will be for other reasons and God will help us, God will bring us forward. And we feel happy and clear about that.

So, it is a law, but a law that liberates. Living in the truth is the thing that offers us the most freedom. Let's make an effort, brothers, and I know it's difficult, but let's do everything possible to live in the law of the Lord that sets us free.

It says, 'the one who looks intently at the perfect law, that of freedom, and perseveres in it.' I've been talking lately about persistence, sticking to the things we commit to, the visions God gives us, the goals that we continue, persistence is very important.

He says, the person who perseveres is in contrast to that double-minded man he spoke of earlier. In the same chapter 1, he talks about the double-minded person who is like the wave of the sea that is dragged by the wind and thrown from one part to another and that whoever behaves like this should not think that they will receive anything from the Mister. That is verse 6 and 7, of chapter 1.

The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Contrast that with the man, the woman who perseveres in the law of God and in the commandments of the Lord. I wrote here, in contrast to the double-minded man, the growing Christian is the one who stands firm through the years knowing that a long race awaits him and that race has to be run with patience. So you have to persevere.

The Bible says that the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. There is something about perseverance, because the Christian life is a marathon, it is not a 100-yard race that you give it everything you have and in 3 seconds, 5 seconds the race is over. No. The Christian life is a marathon of a couple of hours, at least 26 miles at best. And the Christian life is for the long term.

In this trajectory, in this walk, difficulties will come, illnesses will come, trials of different kinds will come, and times of great blessing will also come. We are going to go through difficult situations. Tonight before the service began, a sister was speaking to me about the burden she has for her son, and in the Lord right now we bless him, in fact, he doesn't know where he is, and we declare a blessing, Father, on that young man. You are powerful, Lord.

But, one can imagine the pain of this Christian, this Christian mother for her son, the anguish that one feels. And the Christian life is like that, then worries come, and one sometimes prays for the children and there is no answer and times and gusts come in our lives of difficulty, but there also come times of victory, of refreshment, of going forward and penetrating the gap and come out on the other side. And it requires patience, it requires persistence.

The person who cuits too quickly does not come to victory. We have to arm ourselves with faith, that is why the word says that we patiently run the race that is before us. And every day we have to say, Lord, I'm here for a long time. I'm not going to get away from you. I put my hand on the plow and I'm not going to take it off. Amen. Once you have committed yourself to the ways of the Lord, move on, arm yourself with faith, no matter what comes, fight with your flesh, fight with your emotions that are going to tell you, no, God already abandoned you, God forgot from you, the Christian life is useless. You go ahead and persist and remember, the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The children of God through the centuries have gone through the same process, through the crucible many times of the test. Peter says, I think Second Peter, that our faith tested like gold, that it comes out shining and that is what we have to do in our spiritual life, even if we go through what we go through, we have to persist until the last moment and persevere because that is which will allow the Lord to do his work in our life.

Then, the one who perseveres in that word of the Lord, in that law, not being a forgetful listener. I believe that the center of this meditation tonight is that, let's not be forgetful listeners. Let us ruminate the word like cows, we are eating it little by little, chewing the word of the Lord. We must always be meditating on the word of God. It must be our meditation day and night, as the psalmist says, 'how sweet is your word, is my meditation day and night.' And so we have to be, those are the people who are truly blessed by the word of God.

He who perseveres in it, not being a forgetful listener but a doer of the work, that one will be blessed in what he does. Glory to the name of the Lord. Do you want a foundation for prosperity and blessing in your life? Be an attentive listener, persevering and practicing the word of the Lord and you will be blessed, you will be blessed.

I leave you with the words of Psalm 1, the first three verses, remember and compare it with what James says at the end, that he will be prosperous, he will be blessed in everything he does. The psalmist says in psalm 1, verse 1, "Blessed is the man, blessed is the woman who has not walked in the counsel of evil, nor has she been in the way of sinners, nor has sat in the seat of mockers... you see there behavior, integrity, holy life, life consistent with the word of the Lord.

“Blessed is that person, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, his delight is… think of the person who rejoices and delights in the word of the Lord. It's not enough to just tolerate the word, it's not enough to just submit to listening to it once a week for a while grudgingly, it's not enough to even read it religiously as many people read sometimes almost out of superstition, I'm going to read two verses before to leave the house to see if that covers me a little when I go out. No, no, he delights in the law of Jehovah is his delight and in his law he meditates day and night.

Look at what is the consequence of that type of posture, of attitude towards the word of the Lord, of obedience, of delight in it and of continuous meditation on that word, he says, "it will be like a tree planted by streams of water."

That word will run within you, it will continuously refresh you, it will give you comfort, advice, rest, hope at all times. "He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which bears its fruit in its season and its leaf does not fall, and everything he does will prosper."

Everything you do will prosper. Glory to the name of the Lord. Very similar to what Santiago says, centuries later he says, "he will be blessed in everything he does", very similar, everything he does will prosper. It is a promise that the Lord repeats over and over again, when you dedicate yourself to aligning your life with the word of God, what you do the Lord will bless you in some way, it will take time sometimes, you will have to go through difficulties and everything, but in the long run the Lord will give you victory and you will be blessed in everything you undertake.

Glory to the Lord. That is the hope that I want you to take away from here tonight. that if God is with you no one can hurt you. If God is with you you cannot fail. If God is with you, your life will go from better to better. If God is with you, you will be like the light of the dawn that is increasing, as we have already said several times, until the day is perfect. Do not worry that in this trajectory there are moments of difficulty, trial, fatigue, suffering and tribulations. Don't worry, that's part of the process, but in the long run God will take you to places of delicate pastures and next to resting waters he will shepherd you, because his word will be like that stream of water that continually refreshes you throughout your life. .

Let this be the image you take with you tonight, a purpose, Lord, I am going to be a doer of your word, I am going to be an attentive listener, I am going to meditate on it day and night, I am not going to let life Take away my word and your promises and then I believe that you are going to do it with me and that you will take care of my cause in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Let's stand up. Receive the promise of the Lord in your life. Leave here with joy in your heart, if you came a little tired, renew yourself right now in the waters of the Lord. Get in that precious cool lake of the Lord right now. Father, we refresh ourselves inside and out tonight, from our burdens, our struggles, we trust in you and we say as we said a while ago, I will lift my eyes to the mountains, where will my help come from? My help comes from Jehovah who made heaven and earth.

Lord, I declare that your children receive help, timely relief tonight for all needs and you renew their strength in the name of Jesus. We refresh ourselves in your waters, Lord, we get into your waters, we find hope in them, Father. We rebuke all anguish, all emotional and physical fatigue, Father, we throw the trials and burdens of life at your feet and thank you, Father, because by dwelling... the one who lives in the shelter of the Most High, the one who lives in the shelter of your word He will dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.

I bless your people, Lord, tonight. Thank my Lord. Thank you. Brothers, receive God's blessing. Go home, go to bed trusting in the Lord. Take a good bath before going to bed and believe that God is with you. Amen. I bless you in the name of Jesus. Greet someone and declare God's blessing on their life tonight. Glory to God. Amen. Amen. Glory to the Lord.